Way Short of Heaven

PlayOn Media Server for PS3

I was trying to find a way to get Netflix or Hulu to work with my PS3 when I found PlayOn. I’m sure there are other options out there, but didn’t find many that looked as developed. You can try it free and that convinced me that it would be easier than hooking the laptop up via HDMI every time wanted to watch something at more than 1440×900!

A Few Complaints

Depending on the ‘channel’ you watch, the quality is moderately low *cough*Hulu*cough*. This is really just wishful thinking on my part, even with the year 2010 right around the corner. Online video is slowly catching up to the way people would like to use them. So until whoever is in charge decides to get it and make content available at decent qualities, we’ll be watching YouTube quality video (which is getting a lot better, I admit) and stretching it to at least half our screen.

With PlayOn, you need a decent machine pushing the content to your TV. You’re only going to get performance as good as your weakest link. If the computer running PlayOn is weaker or if your internet connection isn’t that fast, your video is going to get bottlenecked somewhere. You’ll lose quality, or it might take a while to load up. Depending on your setup, scrubbing through video can be a pain, and you might not get the video playing again without backing out and starting over.

You don’t have a search option for Netflix or Hulu, so you should know what you want to watch, or don’t mind browsing alphabetically(Hulu) or by Genre(Netflix). You can however, access your instant queue which makes things easier if you’re already organized.

The Good Stuff

I found a coupon and it took $20 off, making it only $20. It’s expired by now so I won’t bother sharing, but if you sign up for their newsletter, or do a little digging, you’re liable to find a good deal sooner than later. It’s been well worth it for me.

It comes pre-packaged with several channels including: Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, CNN, CBS, and ESPN.

Another huge benefit is that in the PlayOn Plugins forum, a bunch of smart folks have and are developing plugins for other channels, and they’re free! I have gotten AdultSwim, MTV, MTV Music (actually has a TON of music videos), SyFy Channel, Spike, and NASA. I haven’t gotten it to work, but you’re supposed to be able to get live streams from space through that one!

If you have been wanting to use your PlayStation 3 for much more, consider the 14-day trial from PlayOn, and see what you think. I’d be interested to know what you think of it.

Javascript error – not implemented

I was using the zebra striping javascript from A List Apart earlier for a project and kept getting a javascript error in Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8. I found that quite a few people have had the same problem!

I was able to fix the problem by simply returning a null value at the end of the stripe() function. You’ll see the update below. Hope this helps somebody out!

  // this function is needed to work around
  // a bug in IE related to element attributes
  function hasClass(obj) {
     var result = false;
     if (obj.getAttributeNode("class") != null) {
         result = obj.getAttributeNode("class").value;
     }
     return result;
  }   
 
 function stripe(id) {
 
    // the flag we'll use to keep track of
    // whether the current row is odd or even
    var even = false;
 
    // if arguments are provided to specify the colours
    // of the even &amp; odd rows, then use the them;
    // otherwise use the following defaults:
    var evenColor = arguments[1] ? arguments[1] : "#854fc2";
    var oddColor = arguments[2] ? arguments[2] : "#6f3ba9";
 
    // obtain a reference to the desired table
    // if no such table exists, abort
    var table = document.getElementById(id);
    if (! table) { return; }
 
    // by definition, tables can have more than one tbody
    // element, so we'll have to get the list of child
    // &lt;tbody&gt;s
    var tbodies = table.getElementsByTagName("tbody");
 
    // and iterate through them...
    for (var h = 0; h &lt; tbodies.length; h++) {
 
     // find all the &lt;tr&gt; elements...
      var trs = tbodies[h].getElementsByTagName("tr");
 
      // ... and iterate through them
      for (var i = 0; i &lt; trs.length; i++) {
 
        // avoid rows that have a class attribute
        // or backgroundColor style
        if (! hasClass(trs[i]) &amp;&amp;
            ! trs[i].style.backgroundColor) {
 
          // get all the cells in this row...
          var tds = trs[i].getElementsByTagName("td");
 
          // and iterate through them...
          for (var j = 0; j &lt; tds.length; j++) {
 
            var mytd = tds[j];
 
            // avoid cells that have a class attribute
            // or backgroundColor style
            if (! hasClass(mytd) &amp;&amp;
                ! mytd.style.backgroundColor) {
 
              mytd.style.backgroundColor =
                even ? evenColor : oddColor;
 
            }
          }
        }
        // flip from odd to even, or vice-versa
        even =  ! even;
      }
    }
    return null; // For IE.
  }

A Clarification: Justice and Mercy

Right off the bat. My last post was not very well thought out. I was shooting from the hip. My main point didn’t come across very well, and was at least detracted from by they way I staged it.

The main point of my last post: Obvious social injustices have been, and are being swept under the rug.

The way I staged it, and the title “Who freakin cares about tortured terrorists” showed immaturity and hurt what I was trying to say in the first place. An over-reactions to a problem just creates other problems.

So know that I do not support torture. But justice should be served. It’s a hard line to draw, right? I mean, if justice was truly served all the time we would all be in deep. Nobody would get out of speeding tickets, or any traffic violations at all. Anyone who has stolen [shared] music, games, or applications off the internet would be facing hefty fines and prison time. And all these are just surface level crimes. Take it further – what about sin? What about a Holy God? Those two don’t go well together at all!

It’s hard to image God being perfectly just, and offering grace freely to all who believe. At first glance it doesn’t make any sense. Grace and justice are polar opposites! How would God be true to His nature and still allow us to be forgiven? He wouldn’t be – except for Christ! Thankfully God does not deal with us only in terms of justice, but also with mercy.

God “justifies the ungodly” (Romans 4:5) through Christ’s life and death! His wrath was poured out on, and his justice satisfied through Christ. Salvation is a result of both mercy, and justice!

In conclusion – while God has allowed the government authority to judge and sentance for time being, we are called to pray for our enemies, and feed them if thety are hungry. It’s often hard to swallow, but none the less true. There could be a lot more said about our role, the government’s role and how things should be, but for now I’ll stop here.

Who freakin cares about tortured terorists?

Blogs are for ranting right?

A lot of what I hear on the radio on my way to and from work centers around torture. Did it happen? When? Who did it, and for how long? Where was it happening? I’m sick of hearing about potentially tortured, potential terrorists.

At least there might be reason to believe that these people did something wrong.

Do you hear about sex trafficking or abortion? That’s been happening for a long freakin time. There are obvious atrocity’s taking place right in front of us, some of which is legal. And all I hear about on the news is people whining about human rights for the “20th Hijkacker“.

I don’t know what these prisoners have done. Whether they are innocent and being held anyways, or if they have intent to kill people in the name of Allah. If I was innocent and got tortured anyhow, I’d be pissed for sure.

The point however, is that people who are explicitly innocent are being slaughtered with vacuums and forceps every single day. Girls young and old are being beaten and raped, gagged and dehumanized at all hours of the day and night. Not just in India or Burma but here in the States. People are paying for all of this.

There is a demand, therefore somebody has the supply.

Can we get our priorities straight? Stop being so desensitized about all of this! This world is full of crap and there is no getting around that for now. But that doesn’t mean we just tollerate it. Don’t allow yourself the luxury of being numb to all of this pain. Think about about it. Get angry.

Free Porn

I have never paid for a bit of porn in my life, but I’ve seen entirely too much of it. And it’s not like there aren’t already a handful of really good reasons to not look at porn, but yet another one struck me recently.

My friend was telling me about a sermon where the pastor was talking about his buddy’s church on Las Vegas. Most of this church is made up of people who work in Vegas, including strippers, prostitutes, and porn stars. They come to this church because they realize that they need Jesus, and yet they go back to their jobs because they don’t feel like they have another options. The work is there, it pays good, and they don’t really have any other marketable skills. Maybe they have a child or two to feed, and everyone has bills.

So the pastor goes on to talk about a girl who had asked him how to deal with her boyfriend who had recently been to Vegas, and stopped in at a strip club while he was there. He told her it wasn’t huge deal, and he wouldn’t do it again.

The pastor gets angry as he talks about men like that, and how they are selfish. About how they don’t realize that not only are they hurting those closest to them, but they are also being an enabler, and supporting the strippers lifestyle.

The same thing applies to online porn. Free online porn. You aren’t shelling out a dime for it, but the page is covered in ads, and that is how the porn you look at is ‘free’. The more the page is viewed, the more ad money is earned. When you click on an ad, you give them even more money.

Porn is never free. Every time you look at porn, someone is getting paid. Don’t support it.

I hope you can see hhow porn destroy’s people’s lives from this post, but also consider the more close to home and obvious damage that takes place when you look at porn. A woman named Amy just commented on a post from a while back about x3 Watch about how porn killing her – all because her husband is addicted, and won’t even admit his fault.

I know this can be a beast that seems impossible to beat, but there is so much at stake here. It is a big deal.

Fallout 3 – My Bane

I don’t know if you have played or even heard of Fallout 3, but the artwork on the box pulled me in when I saw it at Best Buy. I hope you enjoy the screen shots and concept art I have found scattered around the web while I explain to you why I quit playing it!

First of all, let me start out with the first and last details, then I’ll explain. I saw Fallout 3, and I wanted it. So, I found a nice torrent and downloaded and installed it. I stole it.

Now, it is uninstalled from my machine, and I deleted the torrent, ISO and all saved games. Why would I do this you ask?! I’ll tell you.

This game pulled me in unlike no other game has since Half-Life 2. It mixes the awesome complexity of a good RPG and the action of a first person shooter. It’s set in a post atomic war D.C., when some have survived in fallout shelters for a couple hundred years, and others have made their way in “The Wastes” surviving radiation, mutations, and and anarchy.

So, I’m a sucker for a good story, and shooting stuff. My favorite kind of game is the first person shooter. Soldier of Fortune 2, Battlefield 2, Halo 2, Half-Life 2, and Unreal Tournament all top my list. Seems like I’m partial to sequels…

While the game is amazing, I am a busy guy, and I have a plenty of productive things to do without the distraction of a video game calling my name.

So last Saturday I had a rare opportunity – several free hours. Guess what I did? Was I productive? No! I played Fallout. Next day, I get up early just to play this game.

This may not seem like an addiction or a problem at all to you, but to me it is. I don’t want to play this game for a half hour at a time. I want to play it for 3 hours at a time. Then when I’m done I feel like crap for wasting my life, while simultaneously distracting me and taking precedence over truly important and valuable things.

What good is it to say “I beat Fallout 3!” and have missed a lot of awesome family time or time spent quietly meditating?

Basically, If you have more free time, more self-control, or just want to waste your life away I would highly recommend this game! It’s super well made, lots of thought out details and nice environment (if you can crank the graphics up).

I guess I’m only writing this because it was a revelation to me, and I hope maybe it give someone some perspective. Not to mention the fact that I stole it and thats just plain wrong!

Videos that will change your life

YouTube has made a lot of change in recent months, in the way of changing to a wide screen format and comments added on top of video (although Viddler has been doing something similar for a while now…). the content of videos however, has not improved in leaps in bounds because we still allow Chris Cocker to post videos.

Every now and then, one comes across a video that litterally changes one’s life! These next few fall into that category. The last one is a re-post – because it’s that good. If you’ve seen it before, watch it again. Also, these are all longer than a minute or two. Stick them out, they’ll change your life.

Tribute to John Williams (AMAZING!)

Exploding Banana Mask (DISTURBING!)

Jesus is my Friend (HILARIOUS!)

Speak With Conviction – Taylor Mali (SPOT ON!)

MeeID

As if there weren’t enough sites where you can login and customize your page and then share it with your friends, I wanted to ytell you all about another one!

MeeId stands out because of it’s simplicity. It wouldn’t qualify as social networking so much as just, as the name implies, an ID. Like Twitter, it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of Facebook, it just does one thing and does it well.

It’s fun, and you should make one and then take a look at my MeeId.

Robokill on Rock Solid Arcade

At work we’ve been talking about Flash games a lot – We’re trying to figure out new ways to have fun and make money at the same time. Because of this, I have spent WAY too much time playing them. (You like how I take no responsibility?) I think I stumbled upon this on Digg.com somehow, but Robokill is so much fun! At first I didn’t like it (mostly because I was bad at it…) but after staying up ’till 2:30 one morning I got the hang of it…

So I impore you to waste your time playing this awesome online flash game, Robokill. It’s free somehow, and your game gets saved!

Finally – Play Robokill at Rock Solid Arcade!

Play Orginal Doom Online

Ok, so it’s just the first level. And, it’s hard to get used to the controls. And the graphics aren’t any good. But, it’s cool right?! It has been ported to Flash, which is always cool. Have fun. Play here at newgrounds.com.

Way Short of Heaven

PlayOn Media Server for PS3

A Few Complaints

The Good Stuff

Javascript error – not implemented

A Clarification: Justice and Mercy

Who freakin cares about tortured terorists?

Free Porn

Fallout 3 – My Bane

Videos that will change your life

MeeID

Robokill on Rock Solid Arcade

Play Orginal Doom Online

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A Few Complaints

The Good Stuff

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Recent
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